Anything you could want to know about guns or related subjects (It's like Wikipedia for your boomstick) - 5,722 pages as of Wednesday, April 24, 2024.
If it's about guns, gun rights, gun grabbers or any other related subject, sooner or later it's going to be here. Whether it's sniper rifles, shotguns, WWII arms, ammunition or anything else, we're out there scrounging up anything and everything that we can find. Yes, this is something of an ambitious (some would say impossible) project but we're not quitting until we have it all in one place. Have a look around and see some of what our contributors have put together so far.
Featured Article
Eugene Morrison Stoner passed away on this day in 1997 at the age of 74. The man most associated with the design of the AR-15, which was modified and adopted by the US military as the M16, is regarded by most historians, along with John Browning and John Garand, as one of the United States’ most successful military firearms designers of the 20th century.
He is also, along with the Soviet designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, considered by some historians as one of the two men whose work most shaped the events of the last half of the 20th century.
The prolific designer of rifles began work in the aircraft industry before taking his expertise, along with plenty of new notions about engineering and alloys, to ArmaLite where his career in firearms design really took off. (Read more ...)
Taking my gun away because I might shoot someone is like cutting my tongue out because I might yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater. - Peter Venetoklis
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Did you know?
The 22-250 is based on the 250-3000 Savage case necked down to .22caliber and is so named because of the caliber (22) and the parent case (250).
From 1964 until 1967 Winchester sacrificed quality to maintain low pricing and buyers began using the phrase "pre 64" to describe the better made and therefore more desireable Winchesters.
With over 7,000,000 sold, the Remington 870 holds the record for the best-selling shotgun in US history, but has not matched the longevity of the Winchester model 12 (which was produced for over 90 years)
Matchlock musket balls from the collection of Northampton Museum and Art Gallery
A musket ball was an early form of ammunition used for loading ... (wait for it) ... muskets. Musket balls were generally made from lead (though at times stone musket balls were used), and were muzzle-loaded into the barrel of the musket, often wrapped in a loosely-fitting paper patch and backed with gunpowder.
Musket balls were of a diameter considerably larger than today's modern rifles - the Brown Bess fielded a caliber of more than .75", and hence the ball could cause large wounds. The smooth bore muskets of the Brown Bess period had considerable hitting power and were able to penetrate the armour of the day, but had very limited accuracy due to the lack of rifling in the barrel. In practice muskets were fired at close range in volley fire, and rarely beyond the 50-yard range. The rifled muskets of the American Civil War were much more accurate, making combat ranges of 300 yards - or even more - practical. The term 'ball' lingered on in that conflict as applied to the standard ammunition used by both sides - the Minié ball, for one example. However the Minie ball was not a ball at all, but a conical lead bullet designed to be fired down a rifled barrel. With the invention of the Minie ball and the development of the bullet cartridge or round, the musket ball became obsolete after the middle of the nineteenth century due to its inaccuracy.
